Susan Rice has Israel's back

As one of the two U.S. Congressmen who traveled to the International Court of Justice at the Hague in 2004 to defend Israel’s right to build a security barrier, I know how important it is to stand up for America’s greatest ally in the international community. And Israel has no greater champion in the current administration than Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She is a tenacious defender of human rights, a seasoned and savvy diplomat, and, like the American public itself, a steadfast supporter of a secure, Jewish, and democratic Israel. The cynical recent efforts to tarnish this terrific public servant’s reputation are not only flatly false, but also deeply counter-productive for all who believe in a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.

At the UN, where Israel is repeatedly the target of unfounded scorn and condemnation, Rice has steadfastly come to Israel’s defense. Just this past week, when the Palestinian Authority submitted a resolution for upgraded status to “non-member state” at the UN General Assembly, Rice voiced a loud and eloquent “no” vote to what she called an “unfortunate and counterproductive resolution [that] places further obstacles in the path to peace.”

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One year earlier, in September 2011, the Palestinians threatened to seek unilateral statehood at the UN Security Council, prompting Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak to warn of an ensuing “diplomatic tsunami” against the state of Israel. Rice personally led a tireless campaign to lobby members of the Security Council against the resolution. Her efforts were so successful that the Palestinians could not even get enough support from Security Council members to bring the resolution to a vote—without even needing to use America’s veto.

Rice has defended Israel throughout her entire term, boldly pushing back against what she has called, accurately though perhaps undiplomatically, “the anti-Israel crap” at the UN. In February 2011, the U.S. single-handedly prevented Security Council condemnation of Israel’s settlement activity by vetoing a Palestinian resolution that prejudged issues that the parties must settle around the table. When terrorists struck at Israeli diplomatic personnel in India and Georgia, Rice led the Security Council in unanimously condemning the attacks “in the strongest terms” – the first Security Council statement supporting Israel against terrorism in seven years.

The diplomatic alliances she has built over the past four years at the United Nations paved the way for the toughest sanctions ever on Iran. Her efforts have helped to further isolate the Ayatollahs’ regime “in the face of Iran’s deception and intransigence,” as she clearly described it.

Under Rice, the U.S. has battled valiantly for Israel at the reliably anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, winning praise from Israeli leaders who are grateful to have America slugging back rather than staying away. She fought so effectively against the anti-Israel Goldstone Report that its own author admitted the report’s premises were flawed. She led an international boycott of two anniversaries of the infamous and deplorable Durban Conference that slandered Israel as racist. In the wake of Turkish flotilla incident, she made clear that the U.S. has Israel’s back, and worked to ensure that the final UN report fairly addressed Israel security concerns – a result that Israelis described as a rare victory for Israel at the UN and that even the Wall Street Journal dubbed “A United Nations Miracle.”